People have been asking me recently whether the death knell for direct mail in the charity sector has been sounded. They draw this conclusion from recent Royal Mail statistics showing a decrease last year of 0.7% on 2007 in the number of mailings sent. The phrase, 'lies, damned lies and statistics' comes to mind. To take this one statistic in isolation is extremely misleading.

Direct mail is still working well for fundraisers. However, changes are taking place. Data is becoming even more significant. Charities and their agencies are getting smarter. Data is being scrutinised in more detail than ever. This is resulting in better segmentation, more accurate targeting and subsequently less direct mail.

We recently ran a campaign on behalf of a major UK charity client, sending out a direct mail campaign to a reduced, more targeted file, and it resulted in the largest number of donations the charity had ever received.

So rather than the death of direct mail we are in fact bidding farewell to the unwanted, unopened and unresponsive post that reduces a campaign's ROI and annoys its intended recipient. Good news all round.

In addition, rather than using DM in isolation, some of our best recent results have come from integrated campaigns incorporating multi-channel communications such as DRTV and social networking. These campaigns allow charities to recruit and engage donors in relevant dialogue without the use of any printed matter. This means costs are coming down and relationships are taking place on the donor’s terms, not the charity's, to the benefit of both parties.

So don't believe all you read, the number of direct mail pieces may be on the wane, but it is still a tool with a major role to play as part of the communication mix of most charities.

Mark Roper